BANGKOK -- Deep in a network of canals in the oldest part of Thailand's capital city stands a newly completed giant clad in glowing bronze. Towering nearly 70 meters above the ground, the height of a 20-story building, it is the city's biggest Buddha image, with a width of 40 meters in its cross-legged meditation posture.
The image, built since 2017 at a cost of 100 million baht ($3.3 million), looms over the Klong Dan waterway at Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen, a temple founded in 1610. Named Dhammakaya Dhepmongkol, it is the most ambitious recent project of its kind in the country, reflecting Thailand's continuing reverence for Buddha images.
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